SOUTH SIDE MAN SOUGHT AFTER 3 SHOT ON STREET

Philip WattleyCHICAGO TRIBUNE

A 29-year-old South Side man was being sought for questioning in connection with the shooting of three people as they left a Christmas party early Thursday.

Witnesses told police that a man shot the three on the street, at about 2 a.m., without warning or explanation, just seconds after they had stepped from the party at 2813 E. 77th Pl. The gunman fled after the shooting.

Sgt. Alvin Palmer of the Pullman Police Area violent crimes unit, said that the man being sought is the brother of an 18-year-old woman who had stormed out of the party a short time earlier, contending that she had been insulted.

Palmer described the party as a gala affair that started about noon Wednesday. Dozens of guests were coming and going all afternoon, evening and in the early morning hours, he said.

Palmer said witnesses assured police that the three shooting victims, Edward McKenzie, 51, his wife, Katherine, 48, and Raymond Wilker, 73--all South Side residents--had not insulted the woman, and may not even know her.

McKenzie was listed in serious condition in Jackson Park Hospital and Medical Center Thursday with a bullet wound in the abdomen. McKenzie`s wife was in serious condition in South Shore Hospital with a chest wound that perforated a lung. Wilker, who was shot in the hip, was in fair condition at South Chicago Community Hospital.

When police learned that the woman had angrily left the party shortly before the shooting, they traced her and interviewed her.

Palmer said that she confirmed that she had left the party after being

''called a name'' by a male guest whom she did not know.

She told police that when she arrived home from the party she told her older brother. She said her brother became ''enraged,'' and left their home carrying a handgun. She remained at home, she said.

Witnesses near the shooting scene told police that they heard several shots as if a revolver had been emptied. Each of the victims was shot once.